Brainstorm Podcast

The Pre Canadian Election Episode

Just want to say thanks for listening to our show. We work hard to produce good, fun, skeptical content and hope that you enjoy it. If you want to support the podcast or any of our other projects you can find more information on our main website www.brainstormblog.net or go to our Patreon page at www.patreon.com/brainstormpodcast

Lanka is a member of a group of AIDS
denialists that holds the view that no viruses exist,
the disease cause. AIDS was
not caused by a virus, but AIDS is a superfluous invention to open
up new markets for the chemotherapy.

Skepticism 101 what does it mean to be a
skeptic? What is skepticism and how do we do it?
https://skeptoid.com/skeptic.php

Skepticism in the sense that we use it means using
critical thinking, and reason to determine the validity of a
claim
Quite often this gets mistaken for cynicism or flat out
incredulity. However a skeptic will accept evidence and change
their mind when the burden of proof has been met.

What do we mean by evidence?

It should be testable and reproducible and depending on the
subject published in peer reviewed high impact journals. We’ll go
further into what that means in an upcoming segment of Skepticism
101

Why is there a skeptical movement?

The Skeptic movement is and attempt by those who trust the
scientific method and empirical evidence to spread that trust and
to educate the public on what that means. Not just the positive
side of science but also the flaws and where we can fix them. Quite
often there is a disconnect between what people think is real
because of their own experience and what can be shown to be real
based on facts, logic and evidence. The job of the skeptic movement
is to reconnect people to science in a way that not only helps them
trust the method but those who employ it as well as to help people
understand it.

So what are a few examples of topics that fall within the scope
of skepticism?to my view :

Religion

The supernatural

Health practices

Farming methods

Conspiracy theories

and anything that claims to be scientific

Skepticism and the scientific method is a very broad
subject, that’s why there are specialties. Some people stick to the
health industry and alt med practitioners. Some prefer ag science
and food information. Some people prefer to discuss monsters and
creatures as of yet unproven. Some go for ghosts and some go for
psychics. Pretty much, if you can think of it then there a skeptic
for it.

Atheism For Dummies For starters, what is
an atheist?

An atheist is someone who, quite simply, doesn’t believe in
god or gods. Often for lack of evidence or a good reason. Not all
atheists are atheists for that reason however. Quite often people
are atheistic because of something about religion that they
disagree with, or as a rebellion, or simply because they were never
raised to believe in a god or gods. My own opinion is that
rejection or ignorance of religion isn’t by its own merit a good
enough reason to not believe in god. I think that one needs to use
that as a takeoff point and delve deeper into the evidence and
reasons for belief or lack of belief. For me, atheism and
skepticism are intertwined because good skepticism leads one to
reject the claims made by people who have faith in a god or
gods.

What is an agnostic?

There is a little bit of contention on this subject and but
I think it goes something like this. Agnosticism is about
knowledge. Nearly everyone should be agnostic about certain things,
an example could be that a being outside of the knowable universe
created our universe and then left it to its own devices. It’s not
really possible to know whether or not that is a true statement and
as such we can all be agnostic about that. I’m personally of the
opinion that we don’t have to be agnostic about the claims of
religion because those claims directly intersect with the known
universe and quite often contradict the things we know to be true.
An example of this would be the virgin birth of Jesus. Virgins
can’t have babies and so the bible contradicts what we know about
the universe. Some people think that the idea of god doing magic
and placing a baby into Mary is a good explanation but we know that
all things that can happen within the universe are natural
occurrences with natural explanations and so the explanation of
“god did it” isn’t satisfactory. Things that go against the natural
laws of the universe don’t happen and if god were able to interact
with the universe then it too would be subject to those
laws.

What is atheist activism and why is there a movement?

How is it different from the skeptical movement?

Main topic
Election on Monday. Parties, promises and potential
consequences

About the Podcast

The Brainstorm podcast is Saskatchewan's first skeptic and atheist podcast. An eclectic group of local skeptics discuss a variety of topics relating to science, skepticism, religion and politics while having a few drinks and a few laughs.